


Risk Forgetting All That's Been

by plinys



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Diners, F/F, Femslash February, Roswell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 09:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9540809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: Alex Danvers is stuck. Her life working at a diner the tourist trap known as Roswell, New Mexico, is dragging by while she attempts to pretend that everything is normal. Having her gay crisis in Roswell of all places is bad enough, but combine that with the fact that her mother adopted a literal alien, and it's a recipe for disaster. Enter, one Maggie Sawyer, ready to turn Alex's life even more upside down.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Femslash February, I'm going to be doing one "long-ish" fic a week, to keep the month rolling. First up, is a Sanvers Roswell AU, because aliens. Enjoy?
> 
> Thanks to, @angiemahtielli for the beta

“Welcome to the Crashdown, Roswell’s very own-”

“Lucy, please don’t, your customer service voice haunts my nightmares.” 

“This is why I’m going to get a promotion before you.”

“No,” Alex corrects her, “You’re going to get a promotion before me because your sister owns the diner.” 

Lucy laughs in reply. 

The truth was there wasn’t much for them to do, the diner was nearly empty, both of them just buying their time until they could turn the sign on the door from open the closed and head home. Three tables were occupied: one with a family and their small children nearly finished their late night pancake run, one with a local cop getting his last cup of coffee, and the final table with Alex’s ‘sister’ on a ‘date’. 

Air quotes all around. 

Lucy follows her gaze over to the table where Kara is sitting. 

“Are they speaking Swedish again?”

Alex has been trying not to listen in on their conversation 

But now she forces herself to do so, immediately recognizing the language they were speaking as one that is clearly not Swedish. Not that Alex spoke Swedish, but she had heard enough brief hints of Kryptonian to tell what language they were speaking it.

It was a bit hard to be normal when your parents had just  _ adopted  _ an alien. 

A literal alien.

A walking, talking, and sometimes flying alien.

In a town that was obsessed with aliens, such that everything from the gas station, to the grocery store, to the tiner she worked at was alien themed. Ever since the famed UFO crash and cover up decades before.

Now though - Alex had seen what an alien’s spaceship (or pod) looked like. More than one actually.

Honestly, Alex just counted herself lucky that Kara at least looked like a human teenager, if she had looked like something out of one of those science fiction movies Alex’s friends had been obsessed with back in high school they would have had another thing coming. Because hiding an alien in a town like Roswell was hard enough. 

“Can you two please try to be normal,” Alex says, pouring out two large cups of coffee. One for her alien ‘sister’ and the other for Kara’s new best friend - the latest to fall from the sky. 

Kara blinks up at her with too wide eyes. “I was just telling Mon about your strange human custom where-”

“Don’t say,” Alex says, probably a bit too loudly, if the eyes cast her way are anything to judge by, and she waves Lucy off when the other waitress shoots her a concerned look. Dropping her voice down to a whisper, “Don’t say human like you’re not one.”

At least when Kara speaks, she matches her whisper, “But I’m not.”

“I know that, and-” she jerks her head at the boy.

“Mon,” Kara helpfully supplies.

“Mon knows that, however, as far as the rest of the town is concerned you and Mon are from-”

“Sweden,” this time Mon jumps in. At least the kid remembers his cover story.

“Right, so Swedish people wouldn’t say strange  _ human  _ customs, they’d say strange  _ American  _ customs, got it?”

When both of them give quick nods, she breathes a sigh of relief, and straightens back up. 

“Mom said you’d give us a ride home when you get off,” Kara says, before Alex can slip away from the table. “Please.” 

“You’re still staying with the Olsens, right?” she shoots a glance at Mon, who nods once more. “Yeah, well text them and let them know I’m still on for another hour.” 

With that she breezes away from the table and back to behind the counter. 

Lucy still has that concerned gaze on her face. But then again, as far as Lucy knows, Alex’s mom just adopted a strange Swedish kid as part of her soon to be empty nest midlife crisis, nothing more, nothing less. 

“Everything’s fine,” she assures Lucy, though it only sounds half true as she speaks, “Everything’s normal.” 

Normal.

She just wanted things to be normal.

Moving to New York, going to college pre-med, that would be normal. 

But there was money necessary for that trip, money that Alex would only be able to get if she kept pulling shifts at Crashdown and saving it up. 

So here she was stuck in Roswell, with nothing but a tip jar kindly labeled  _ Alex’s Run Away To NYC  _ fund - curiosity of the diner’s owner Lois Lane, to show that she had any intention of leaving.

Trying to be as normal as possible.

_ Trying _ being the operative word.

That was all she wanted.

To get out of Roswell.

Okay, maybe - she also wanted to kiss pretty girls but alien-obsessed towns in New Mexico weren’t exactly the most open of places. No matter how supportive her mother had been - after all, having an alien in the family made everything else seem plain in comparison - the rest of the town wouldn’t be.

The bell over the door to the diner rings, and Alex grimaces, looks like they won’t be getting out of here in an hour after all. She looks up, already assuming the worst. They always tended to get the weird tourists in the summer, those that came out to the desert in hopes of acting out their childhood X-Files fantasies, and instead just end up taking up space in the diner when Alex would very much like to go home.

It’s only once she looks up that her judgement freezes in place, because standing there in a leather jacket and a loose gray Henley is one of the most beautiful women Alex has ever seen. 

Tourists shouldn’t be allowed to be this attractive. They shouldn’t be allowed to steal the air from Alex’s lungs, and make her remember exactly  _ why  _ she was attracted to women.

It wasn’t fair.

She tunes into Lucy’s practiced speech, to catch the tail end of it,  “-highly recommend our blueberry pie or-”

“Coffee,” the woman that had just entered says. “Just a very large black coffee.” 

That’s Alex’s job. 

Her hand stutters for a second, jostling the pot of coffee still in her hand, before she drags herself forward to the booth that the mystery woman of her dreams has settled down in. She’s pulling files from her bag and spreading them across the table, even as Alex flips her mug up and fills it with coffee.

There’s something Alex should say. Should offer to take her order, use that customer service voice Lucy keeps getting on her about - or even try and flirt with her, just a little bit - but all Alex can manage to say is, “You know we close in an hour, right?”

The customer, the beautiful tourist that Alex will probably never see again, jerks her head up at that and for a brief moment their eyes meet, lingering on each other. She asks, “What?”

Alex swallows, pushing her attraction down. “Crashdown closes in an hour, you can’t stay here all night.” 

“Oh, I saw the sign when I came in,” she replies, “Do people normally try to do that? Try to stay all night.”

“You have no idea,” Alex says, “I can’t stand it.”

There’s a little something she gets in reply. Not quite a laugh, but almost.

Attractive people shouldn’t be allowed to have attractive laughs too. 

“Well,” she replies, “I would hate to be someone you couldn’t stand.” 

“Oh I’m sure you-”

“Alex!” 

Her reply is cut off by Kara’s voice from the other side of the diner, and Alex turns at once to where the girl is sitting half out of the booth, frantically waving Alex over.

“Sorry, I have to go take care of this,” she turns back to shoot the customer an apologetic look. “Just call for me if you need a refill or something?”

“I’ll do that.”

 

*

 

She was absolutely certain she was never going to see the customer of her dreams again. That all she would have to prove the encounter had ever happened at all were Lucy’s teasing comments, and a general frustration directed in Kara’s direction.

Alex knew it wasn’t technically Kara’s fault, but that was the thing with little sisters.

Especially adopted alien little sisters.

At least today she got off easy, Kara and Mon were at the movies and officially considered  _ not her problem  _ for the day - all Alex had to do was survive her work shift and -

“Don’t look now, Alex, but I think your favorite customer might have just walked in.”

_ Don’t look now _ is easier said than done.

Alex’s head jerks up too quickly and in the general direction of the same booth where she had been sitting last time.

Alex had assumed she would have left town by now, it had been two days, but there she was - the most beautiful tourist Alex had ever seen - spreading manila folders out over the booth’s table once more.

She grabs her coffee pot and quickly crosses the diner, flipping over the cup without asking, and pouring out the drink.

When she finishes, Alex looks up to see the customer’s eyes on her.

“Thank you, Alex, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, I’m Alex. Though it’s not fair that you know my name and I don’t know yours?”

There it is again. The not quite laugh. “I’m Maggie.”

Maggie. 

What a lovely name. 

“What are you doing in Roswell, Maggie?” Alex asks, before tacking on, “If you don’t mind me asking?” in an attempt to make her question sound less rude.

“You know, that seems to be the most common question I’ve been asked since arriving here. Is everyone in Roswell so noisy?”

Alex shrugs. “It’s a New Mexico thing.” 

Maggie makes a disbelieving noise in reply, but nods her head. “If you must know, I’m here because of aliens.”

Of course.

Why had she expected anything different.

Every tourist came to Roswell for the same reason. 

“Let me guess, X-Files fan?”

“Gillian Anderson is responsible for both my sexual awakening and my love of the paranormal,” Maggie says with a sort of blind earnesty. “And you say that like you’re not an X-Files fan.”

“I’m not,” Alex admits, low and quiet, conspiratorial almost, “You know what else, I don’t actually believe in aliens.”

Maggie snorts at this. “How can you say that with a straight face, while wearing that outfit.”

“It’s the uniform,” Alex insists. It wasn’t like she willingly choose to wear the teal dress and space silver apron complete with alien eyes. Like anyone would willing choose to wear this. 

Lois Lane may have owned a diner, but she did not have nearly enough fashion sense. 

“I like it,” Maggie says.

This time it’s Alex’s turn to snort. 

“Okay, clearly you need that cup of coffee, so your eyes actually start working.” 

*

 

The thing is Maggie Sawyer - incredibly hot tourist on the hunt for aliens - didn’t just come into Crashdown once or twice.

No she kept coming into Crashdown. 

Day after day.

Spreading her folders out across the corner booth that in the span of a week she had claimed as her own, ordering just a simple cup of coffee, and smiling at Alex in a way that made her cheeks flush, and led to far too many of Lucy’s knowing looks and even to the point where Kara ended up shooting her a few.

Kara, the alien her parents had adopted, had apparently realized how obvious Alex’s crush was and if that wasn’t the worst of the worst she didn’t know what was.

Of course, it wasn’t like she could help it.

Not when Maggie was sitting there, in the booth like it belonged to her, staring up at Alex and asking Alex about Roswell, about the world she had always lived in, but not just that - sometimes she would ask other things, questions that would leave Alex stumped. 

The way Maggie’s lips turn up into a messy sort of smile as she asks, “What’s a good girl like you, doing in a place like this?”

Such that all Alex can manage is a sort of awkward laugh and - “I - you know, coffee? You need - coffee refill, right yes? Coffee.” 

That was probably about the point where she finally realized how deep she was in. Caught up in the idea of someone she barely even knew outside of the waitress/customer dynamic and wasn’t that just the thing.

Any day now Maggie would have her fix of alien hunting, and go back up north to whatever college she was attending, leaving Alex with nothing but a fantasy in her head. 

Maybe it was better that way. 

Or maybe not. 

 

*

 

“You know what I don’t get.” 

“Why I’m wearing a furry tiara?” 

“No that-” Maggie stops, her eyes darting to look up at the aforementioned tiara. “I told you before, you look cute in your uniform.” 

Alex doesn’t believe her. Still doesn’t even with Maggie smiling at her like she’s the only person in the diner. Nobody has ever made her feel this way with just once glance before but Maggie has a way of doing it every time she looks Alex’s way.

It isn’t fair. 

“I do not.”

Maggie huffs a little, but doesn’t fight her on it. “No, Alex Danvers, what I don’t get it how you can work here,” at this she gestures towards all of Crashdown, for the  _ vintage  _ decorations of the diner to the pictures of supposed UFOs dotting the walls, “in Roswell, and not believe in aliens. Even a little bit?”

“I’m a little old for fairy tales,” Alex says, sharper than she had intended.

It wasn’t Maggie’s fault. Maggie didn’t know exactly how much Alex believed in aliens - that it wasn’t a matter of believing anymore - but a matter of knowing  _ exactly  _ what was out there. Even if she’d wanted to tell Maggie she couldn’t, because no matter what complicated feelings arose in Alex every time she saw the other woman.

Admitting just how much she now about aliens - admitting that her baby sister was one of them - was something that Alex could never do.

So she shrugged, hoping it would belay her sharp tone from before. 

“It’s just... you grow up here, in Roswell of all places, and the whole alien thing sort of loses its magic.”

 

*

 

“I get off at 4 today,” Alex says. Using the one burst of confidence she has in her, as she turns to Maggie, setting down her coffee mug with a pointed movement. “You know, if you wanted to do something other than this?” 

“Nothing would make me happier.” 

 

*

 

Maggie is gorgeous.

She always is, but Alex can’t help but notice it now.

Maggie in her ripped jeans, leather jacket, and shirt that says  _ I Want To Believe  _ in big letters across the front. 

Gorgeous, unearthly beauty.

Whereas Alex is - lucky to be out of her uniform for once. Or mostly out of  it, she hadn’t thought to bring a change of clothes, so the dress is still on underneath - the mint green skirt poking out from underneath her black hoodie. 

Honestly - she just felt lucky that Maggie had even given her the time of day. 

“You know, when I came to Roswell, I never expected things to end up like this.” 

“Let me guess, you expected you would’ve found an alien by now-” Which she actually technically had. Well, sort of. Maggie and Kara had definitely shaken hands by now, as Alex had awkwardly been forced to introduce her baby sister. Also Mon may have made a terrible habit of waving dramatically at Maggie every time she happened to be in the diner when he was already in there. 

“No I mean, I did kind of expect that,” Maggie admits, she shrugs her shoulders in a way that is both cool and casual. Alex wishes she could be that cool and casual, but at twenty she’s just… Not. 

It’s a work in progress. 

“What I didn’t expect,” Maggie continues, “Was meeting you, Alex Danvers.”

“Me?”

“I mean, you’re pretty amazing, the only person I know that can rock a furry tiara-” Alex can’t help but let out a groan at Maggie’s words “-And I think you might be into girls? But if I’m totally off base-”

“You’re not. Totally off base that is,” Alex says quickly, before her voice loses its fire, “It’s just in a town like Roswell, somehow believing in aliens is more acceptable than being gay, and - I’m fine with that, I’m going to get out of here and things will get better it’s just in the meantime. With the diner and my sister…”

“Have you ever kissed a girl before?” 

She can’t help the flush that rises to her cheeks, “I mean, not yet but I’m going to. One day.”

“I like you, Alex,” Maggie says, “And I think you like me too?”

“I do, I-”

“Oh good,” Maggie says cutting her off, first with her words and then with her lips and oh- 

Okay.

That’s what it’s like to kiss a girl. 

Amazing.

Incredible. 

A little awkward because  _ hey tongues going in other people’s mouths is weird  _ but -

But she likes it.

A lot.

It’s only once Maggie pulls back, that it comes crashing back to Alex. The fact that Maggie is only here as a tourist, only here to hunt down the myths of aliens that she had heard about. That she’ll be gone soon enough, assuming she can’t figure anything out.

Or - she’ll find out too much.

Alex knows first hand what happens to people that find out too much.

“What’s wrong, Danvers, I go to fast?”

“No you - no you’re good. This is good we should do that again though, just to check if it’s still good.” 

“That I can do.”

 

*

 

“I know you’re not going to listen to me,” Alex says, her fingers fumbling against the side of her beer can. She’s not old enough to drink, not for a few more months, but Maggie had bought the drinks and invited Alex up to her hotel room, and even though they weren’t going to do  _ anything _ that didn’t mean Alex couldn’t enjoy her one evening off from the diner. “But I’m going to say it anyways.”

“Okay?”

“Everyone comes to Roswell looking for aliens, and-”

“They don’t exist?” Maggie asks, her voice light like she’s joking but…

“No. I mean, they might exist, maybe - if they did. Just let’s pretend they do for a second,” Alex continues, unwilling to be put off from this point. At least, while she’s slightly tipsy she will manage to get it out. “Maybe they don’t want to be found. Maybe they just want to live out their lives in peace, to grow up and have normal childhoods and be normal people - not  _ people  _ exactly but-” 

Kryptonians.

Daxamites. 

People. 

“ - When people come into this town looking for them. When the government gets involved it’s not safe, it’s not… I just want you to be safe, Maggie, I like you. A little bit now, but I think it could turn into a lot. And I don’t want you to leave town because,” Alex shakes her head, the drinking is making her sentimental, making her say things that she would never normally be brave (or foolish) enough to say. “I don’t want you to be another lost tourist in the desert.” 

Maggie is silent for a long moment. 

For so long that Alex wants to get up, she wants to leave because this is about more than just the first hint of feelings and attraction she has towards Maggie it’s about the whole town, the whole damn world - all that Alex has ever known.

“I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

“You haven’t,” Alex questions her. Furrowing her brows together while a feeling of dread sank inside of her. 

“No, I-” Maggie looks guilty as she speaks. Running her hands through her hair. “I’m not supposed to say anything, they would literally kill me back at headquarters if I said anything, but I think you know something and- I’m not a college student on break to investigate the paranormal.”

“You’re not?”

Maggie shakes her head. “I work for the Department of Extra-Normal Operations, the DEO, I know aliens exist. I’ve seen them, I work with them on a daily basis. We recently received intel that led us to believe Area 51 was not as closed down as everyone once thought it was, and the city that was created to distract people from the fact that extraterrestrial life is real, may have just found themselves in possession of two alien teenagers.”

The beer can slips from Alex’s fingers in surprise. Thankfully, not having long to fall, it doesn’t spill over but the effect is still there.

Maggie’s eyes are trained on her now.

“I didn’t befriend -  or seduce - or whatever - you because I thought you might know something. I just now realized that you must and Alex,” Maggie reaches across to squeeze her hand. The touch is not as reassuring as it could be. “Alex I really like you, and just like how you wanted to keep me safe a few minutes ago, I want to keep you safe but I can’t do that unless-”

“What are you going to do with the aliens if you find them?”

Maggie doesn’t hesitate. This itself is reassuring. “We help get them paperwork, help them ease into life on Earth, we’re the good guys, Alex.” 

“I’m sorry I,” Alex stands up a bit too quickly. Maybe she did have too much to drink. “I need to go.”

  
  


*

 

Kara.

Sweet wonderful Kara.

Sweet alien Kara. 

Finds her the second she gets home, taking Alex’s open bedroom door as an invitation to slip inside, and slide next to her in bed. It’s a tight fit, but for once Alex isn’t entirely opposed to the fact that her mother adopted an alien with no sense of personal space.

“Your date went bad?”

“You could say that,” Alex replies, turning to lie on her back and look up at the ceiling rather than facing Kara. 

“I’m sorry. She seemed really nice?” 

Maggie is nice.

That’s the thing.

But even though Alex may struggle to deal with her newfound family, and even though she may want everyone and everything to be  _ normal _ . Family still came first. She had a job to look after people and stranger tourists - no strange DEO agents - had nothing on that. 

“I’ll get over it.”

“You want to to talk about it,” Kara asks. 

“Not really.”

“You want me to distract you with other conversation?”

She wanted to sleep, but at the same time she wasn’t sure she’d be able to get there.

So instead she rolled away from the ceiling to turn back to Kara again. “Sure. Tell me about what dumb thing Mon’s done lately.” 

Even in the dark Alex can see Kara’s features light up at that opportunity for conversation. Maybe having a little sister wasn’t that much of a pain afterall. 

“Oh Rao, where do I even begin?”

 

*

 

Maggie doesn’t come into the diner the next day.

Or the day after that.

Lucy notices, because she is freakishly perceptive. 

She also pointedly avoids asking about it because she’s Lucy Lane.

Though she all but does.

Alex figures if she’s not going to come out with it then there’s no need for her to say anything. No need at all. It’s not like she wants to talk about her feelings. Her very complicated ones. 

Not at all.

 

*

 

When she does eventually see Maggie again, it’s not at the diner.

It’s a week later, and starts because Mon El breaks some guys arm while arm wrestling and of course, a ‘fifteen’ year old, breaking a grown man's arm is suspicious. 

At least now, Maggie isn’t pretending to be a tourist. 

She’s got a jacket and a badge, all official-like.

Very X-Files.

She doesn’t seem surprised at all, when it is Alex at the police station to reason with the chief and get Mon out on bail. 

“Nice outfit, Danvers,” she says. Like there’s nothing unusual about them running into each other here. Like Alex still isn’t getting butterflies in her stomach. 

She smoothes down her skirt. 

“Well, I came right from work so-”

“Alex!” 

She’s saved from having to make more conversation by Mon’s appearance, the boy hurrying forward to scoop her into a far to enthusiast hug. 

“My hero!”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome. Come on, Kara’s waiting in the car,” Alex says, getting Mon to release her. And shooting Maggie - Maggie, who is still looking at them like she knows too much - a very pointed look. “I’ll see you around.” 

 

*

 

“Wasn’t that lady in the police station? The same one from the diner that you-”

“Mon, shut up,” Kara snaps before Alex can say anything. Which Alex would have almost counted as a blessing, if the next words she said hadn’t been. “She broke Alex’s heart.” 

“Shit, sorry.”

“You know, Alex, Mon and I can shoot lasers out of our eyes, like - we could totally take her down if you wanted us to?”

“I’m fine,” Alex says, quickly turning up the car radio. “But, uh, thanks?”

 

*

 

Maggie shows up at the diner the next day.

Alex makes Lucy bring her the usual cup of coffee.

Something that Lucy gives her hell for five minutes later.

“She asked about you. Asked if you were doing okay?”

“It’s complicated, Luce.” 

“Okay - well, don’t say I didn’t try to help.”

 

*

 

Things were so much easier when Maggie wasn’t coming into the diner.

Now though, now Alex can’t avoid her.

Can’t ignore how her heart is clearly interested. 

Can’t ignore how Maggie knows something - something that could either hurt or help the people that Alex cares about and Alex-

Alex can’t figure out where to go from here.

In the end, Maggie takes that decision away from her.

By leaning against the side of Alex’s car when she gets off shift. Maggie looks good, leather jacket, white t-shirt, eyes with the moon reflecting back in them - good. 

It’s unfair. 

“Alex.”

“Maggie.” 

Very eloquent.

Both of them.  

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

“Well, you started avoiding me first so,” Alex shrugs her shoulders. There’s no escaping this conversation. Maggie is between her and her car, which really sucks. 

“I think I went about things the wrong way.”

“You think?”

“I think I really like you, and if you don’t like me anymore that’s fine, you don’t have to like me-”

“I do. Or I did,” Alex admits. “I don’t know how I feel now, but I-”

“But you’re worried about your family?”

Alex’s whole body tenses.

“What did you say about my family?”

“I didn’t realize it at first, but now that I noticed it, it’s so obvious. I think I was blinded by my feelings for you, that’s why I didn’t notice, not until…   Jeremiah Danvers, your father, he was one of the best DEO agents until he went off the grid a few years back, they still talk about him at the academy and - I didn’t think at first that you two were connected, I only looked into it after I saw you at the police station.”

Shocking realizations about her family aside.

Alex nods once, telling Maggie to continues.

Which she does. “The teenager you bailed out, he’s one of them? The aliens, right? And I think your sister is the other one.”

“If you hurt them-”

“I would never. I told you before, we’re here to protect aliens, and even if we weren’t. I couldn’t hurt someone you cared about.” 

Oh.

Well that’s just-

Oh.

“Alex?”

“I’m still trying to process this.”

“Yeah take your time,” Maggie nods. 

Except, Alex doesn’t need to take her time.

Not really, she’s thought about this a lot over the past two weeks.

Done some googling into the DEO, talked with her mother and Kara about it and even though she’s still unsure of a lot of things. The first of which is whether to trust Maggie or not. Alex also knows that sometimes life presents you with moments in which you need to take a leap of faith and this seems like one of them.

This time Alex isn’t going to let the moment slip by.

The can figure everything else out afterwards.

So instead of answering or asking all the questions between them, she asks for the one thing she can control.

“Can I kiss you again?”

Maggie doesn’t even hesitate before saying, “I was hoping you’d ask that.”

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @ plinys


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